CRUEL

08.15.11

Somalia Famine Aid Stolen

Farah Abdi Warsameh / AP

Just when the cruel situation in Somalia couldn’t get much worse, an Associated Press investigation has discovered that sacks of food sent to alleviate the country’s severe famine have been stolen and are being sold at markets as children starve nearby. The U.N.’s World Food Program acknowledged that it has been investigating the food theft for two months. The food isn’t even safe once it’s been handed out to the starving families. People in the large Badbaado camp near Mogadishu said they were often forced to hand back their food once journalists had taken photos of them with it. International officials expected some of the aid to go missing but have been stunned by the scale of the theft. The U.S. estimates that 450,000 people live in famine zones controlled by militants, making them difficult to reach, and that 29,000 children under 5 have already died.